32 Camera Deployment

[ChiTownTech]

Good Afternoon

Our Hikvision 64 channel NVR has been acting up lately. It's randomly rebooting and I don't care to try to figure out the issues with it. I hated the video playback experience with it anyhow. We have about 32 cameras on the property and can currently go back about 4 months of video. Recording 24/7.

I have been eyeballing BlueIris for a while now.

My concerns are getting a system to support our setup.

We have a lot of cameras on our property. All powered independently with a POE switch. Most cameras are recording at about 5-8 frames per second at 1080p resolution. We have a mix of exterior and interior cameras. I would not mind the interior cameras recording at a lower resolution. I would like to use deep stack AI for its motion tracking and logging. I honestly hate sifting through video. Blueiris looks like it would be easier to review video.

We use the system a lot. I have been looking at an old Dell Optiplex Tower. I reached out to BlueIris sales who could not help spec out a system.

I am looking at a Dell Precision 3630 Tower
i7-8700 3.20GHz
32GB RAM
256GB SSD HDD for OS

I then plan to add 3 hard drives for storage most likely 6-8TB each

Do you think the processor will be enough or is it going to struggle to keep up with all the video feeds? I would assume the RAM would be sufficient.

[YrbkMgr]

Firstly, I've been using BI since v3 (circa 2013) and have become a BI evangelist. I'd classify my knowledge just shy of "intermediate" in terms of facility with the software. I know of no one who had buyers remorse for choosing BI for similar implementations . Btw, don't work for 'em, just like what they've done.

Do you think the processor will be enough or is it going to struggle to keep up with all the video feeds?

I know a lot of credible, tenured folks who run BI from workstations just like that from ebay. I can't say how many cameras they're running, but a 7th Gen Intel is a great starting point in my opinion. Below are system requirements:

This software is designed to run optimally on a newer PC running a recent 64-bit version of Windows (7 or newer). For a server OS (2012 or newer), enable the Desktop Experience feature. Intel CPUs and Nvidia graphics cards and Windows 10 are recommended. 8GB of RAM is generally adequate along with ample space on a fast hard drive or SSD.

About hard drives... an often under appreciated feature of BI is Clips & Archiving - extraordinarily robust. It makes storage virtually limitless as you can add USB HDD's for archiving video. The devil is in the details, as always, but from what you've posted, any obstacles you may encounter from a hardware perspective are likely to be easily redressed. I have two 4TB internal WD Black and anything older than approx 3 months gets send to archival external drives.

I offer the following advice: be prepared for a paradigm shift and a steep learning curve to become comfortable with BI - but the payoff is worth it. There are tons of resources available in this forum and friendly members willing to lend a hand.

Hope that helps a bit.

[ChiTownTech]

Figure I would update this post in case someone comes across it.

Ended up going with the following specs:
Dell Precision 3630 Tower
i7-8700 3.20GHz
32GB RAM
256GB SSD HDD (used for operating system and alerts database)
Onboard Video (no monitor is plugged in all access is done remotely using TeamViewer for management of system)

For Storage of security video:
HGST Ultrastar HUH728080ALE601
8TB
7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

I did debloat the PC and its running Windows 10 Pro right now. Turned off all services that were not required and deleted all preinstalled apps. Currently have 27 feeds running into the machine at 6-8 FPS of Full HD. DeepStack is running on all feeds CPU only spikes to about 65% and Ram is at 3 GB. Did enable direct to disk recording.

[ChiTownTech]

Figure I would update this post in case someone comes across it.

Ended up going with the following specs:
Dell Precision 3630 Tower
i7-8700 3.20GHz
32GB RAM
256GB SSD HDD (used for operating system and alerts database)
Onboard Video (no monitor is plugged in all access is done remotely using TeamViewer for management of system)

For Storage of security video:
HGST Ultrastar HUH728080ALE601
8TB
7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

I did debloat the PC and its running Windows 10 Pro right now. Turned off all services that were not required and deleted all preinstalled apps. Currently have 27 feeds running into the machine at 6-8 FPS of Full HD. DeepStack is running on all feeds CPU only spikes to about 65% and Ram is at 3 GB. Did enable direct to disk recording.

[HeneryH]

Do you know how much cpu is being used by BI vs the DS?

[TimG]

I suggest having a look here for similar set ups: https://biupdatehelper.hopto.org/default.html#stats